This invention relates generally to improvements in devices and methods for conductively interconnecting electrical components in an implantable medical device or the like. More particularly, this invention relates to a conductor set and related production and installation method for quickly and easily interconnecting multiple electrical components. The invention is particularly designed to facilitate electrical interconnection of pacemaker lead connector blocks with feedthrough terminals of an implantable heart pacemaker unit or similar device.
Implantable medical devices of the type having electrical circuit components are well known in the medical arts. In one particularly common form, the implantable device comprises a pacemaker unit having an appropriate electrical power supply and related control circuitry for use in electrically stimulating a patient muscle, such as the heart. Such pacemaker unit commonly includes an hermetically sealed case or housing within which the power supply and control circuitry are protectively encased, in combination with one or more conductive pacemaker leads extending from the housing to the selected muscle structure within the patient. Feedthrough terminals on the pacemaker housing accommodate hermetically sealed passage of electrical conductors to the housing exterior for appropriate connection to the pacemaker lead or leads, typically through the use of so-called connector blocks having set screws or the like for secure lead attachment. The connector blocks and associated feedthrough conductors disposed externally of the pacemaker housing are commonly encased within an hermetically sealed head structure, such as an insulative head of cast epoxy or the like.
In the past, considerable research and development activity has focused upon the design of feedthrough terminals for permitting pacing signals to be transmitted from the hermetically sealed unit housing. Similarly, significant efforts have been directed toward the design of pacemaker lead connector blocks for obtaining a secure yet hermetically sealed electromechanical connection to pacemaker leads. However, comparatively little attention has been directed to the design of conductors and related installation methods for electromechanically interconnecting the feedthrough terminals with the associated lead connector blocks. To the contrary, available pacemaker units have predominately utilized elongated wires extending from the feedthrough terminals and individually shaped by bending for appropriate connection by welding or the like to the associated connector blocks. Unfortunately, the close working space provided in a desirably compact implantable device makes this wire bending and shaping procedure both tedious and time consuming. Moreover, in pacemaker units having multiple feedthrough terminal conductors, significant attention and skill are required to maintain the conductor wires in sufficiently spaced array to avoid short circuit failures during pacemaker unit operation.
There exists, therefore, a significant need for improvements in devices and methods for electrically interconnecting feedthrough terminals with lead connector blocks in a heart pacemaker unit or other implantable medical device, particularly with respect to permitting the desired electrical interconnections to be made quickly and easily with multiple conductors arranged and maintained in spaced relation to prevent short circuit failures. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.